Domingo de Agosto

It's the middle of the summer, so some people in Rome head to Ostia and the beach, by train or auto or scooter or even bicycle. Some stay in Rome and play in the fountains, or go out for coffee, or work, or rob stock yards.

It's Luciano Emmer's first story feature. He had been making documentaries since 1941, and would continue to do so through his death in 2009 at the age of 91, and he hasn't strayed far from his roots here, with little snippets of minor stories, all important to the characters, but completely unremarkable to outsiders. A widower tries to start a serious relationship with another woman, but that means his daughter must go to camp; a policeman (Marcello Mastroianni in his first substantial role, though his voice is dubbed by Alberto Sordi) has gotten his girlfriend pregnant. They want to marry, but her employers have given her notice; a boy and a girl rent a pedal raft at the beach, sink it, and have to hike back miles.

Given the title, one immediately thinks of MENScHEN AM SONNTAG, and there's almost certainly a linkage, but to me it's simply a handsome little anthology of a world getting back to order after the chaos of the Depression and the Second World War.

Saw on YouTube August 4, 2019, i.e., a Sunday in August. I had never heard of this movie before YouTube announced it, and other than Marcello Mastroianni, the personnel, including director Luciano Emmer, all unfamiliar to me.

The camera work and cutting are superb. The YouTube print with subtitles was crystal clear.

The movie simply serves up a day at the beach, a day made up of multiple stories of the assorted beach goers. Emmer's direction may be described as neorealistic but accomplished with a touch considerably lighter than what is seen movies such as the nearby Umberto D (1951). This movie proves that neorealism does not reside entirely on the dark side.

It may be kinder and gentler, but the believability of the action is maintained at all times. I especially enjoyed the boy-meets-girl story featuring Anna Baldini, offering moments touching and plausible in about equal measure. Who knows, maybe some of the relatives of the Roman beach goers were on Coney Island during the time of the film's action, and if they were, the stories would have been hardly different, except for a forced detour around the minefield in "Domenica".

The movie's ancestors include "People on Sunday" (1930, original title Menschen am Sontag) directed by Siodmak, Ulmer, et al., as well as the many early silent films shot with the camera planted on the beach as people clothed from head to toe frolicked in grainy waves.

Strong recommendation.

A sweetheart of a film and a pleasing surprise. The film takes a nostalgic look at Rome's favourite recreation area, and director Luciano Emmer is up there with his Italian colleagues, Rossellini, Visconti, De Sica, when it comes to visual poetry. Similar to People on Sunday and A Day in the Country, the plot comprises several episodes with several groups of people, Roman families, youth gangs and young love couples, who spend a Sunday at the beach of Ostia. It's meant to be a light-hearted romantic comedy, but the shadows of war are still visible in form of barbed wire and landmines in the beach sand. The mostly amateur actors perform unspent, sincere and strangely touching. The most notable performance comes from a young, bloodily fresh nature talent, Anna Baldini, Franco Interlenghi's crush here, who surprisingly has no other film listed on IMDb than this one. She reminds very much of a young Harriet Andersson in Bergman's first films. I'm wondering why she did not keep up and I hope she's okay ;). Unlike Marcello who obviously started off one of Italy's greatest film careers with his first noticeable appearance here. His role is a good, but ordinary one of a traffic cop who devotedly helps his struggling girlfriend. The film truly is a little gem with a wink and a big beating heart.

There were a slew of films made in Britain in the 1950s about the traditional exodus from the city to the seaside for a day out, but mostly they involved fellows with handkerchiefs tied over their heads and women in deck chairs in their scarves and raincoats. Not so in Ostia, where the Roman population know exactly how to enjoy themselves when they get a holiday and time to spend, as scantily clad as possible, frolicking around having fun. Just about every class is represented here as the wealthy and the less so all mingle together bringing with them their problems, peccadilloes and sun tan lotion. As you can imagine, this all happens in an entertainingly Italian fashion with dialogue delivered quickly and pithily as the older folks struggle to deal with the stresses and strains of the logistics whilst the younger ones flirt, have temper tantrums as generally the whole film makes you remember just why those days out were never quite a much fun as our rose-tinted memories suggest. There's a lovely scene with "Enrico" (Franco Interlenghi) and "Marcella" (Anna Baldini) taking a boat out onto the water, only for it's plug to come out and for it to sink without trace from under them that all rather sums up the personable chaos the packs ninety minutes of human beings a play before they all head home exhausted! It's busy, frenetic, funny and worryingly quite accurate at times and well worth a watch.

With a documentalist's eye, Luciano Emmer films the microcosm of Rome's beach on a beautiful Sunday of August 1949. By bike, car, vespa, train, all generations and social classes seem to migrate to Ostia and meet at the beach. Social barriers are smoothing, new couples are forming, other are breaking up... A piece of life, of freedom, of freshness with its joys and sorrows and one of Marcello Mastroianni's first role in cinema.